Eva Cassidy: “Time After Time”

time after time

Singer Eva Cassidy was born in Washington, D.C. on February 2, 1963. She began singing at an early age, and eventually garnered attention in her hometown.

Many came to admire her jazz and blues work.  But during Cassidy’s lifetime, her fame was largely limited to the DC area. While she was singing, she also worked at Behnke Nursery in Maryland doing greenhouse work between 1981 and 1995. In 1992, she released an album of duets with Chuck Brown, The Other Side. But on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33, Cassidy died from melanoma.

Several months before she died, she released a live album, Live at Blues Alley. The album provided Cassidy with more fans, and it began to receive wider attention after her death. Additional posthumous albums added to Cassidy’s legacy. Artists such as Paul McCartney became fans, and a 2001 Nightline episode about Cassidy became one of the most popular segments ever on the show.

Today, through the wonders of the Internet, many more music fans are familiar with Cassidy’s beautiful voice. Unfortunately, she never knew how much she would be appreciated. But fortunately for us, we have her music, as well as some camcorder video from a performance at Blues Alley in D.C. Check out Eva Cassidy singing Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.”



What is your favorite Eva Cassidy recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Time After Time: From Alt-Rock American Idol to Miles Davis

    This week on American Idol, Colton Dixon did a good job covering Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” from She’s So Unusual (1983).

    After he sang, he graciously noted that he did not deserve all the credit for his reinterpretation because he took much of it from the band Quietdrive. If you’re not familiar with the group, the band is an alt-rock group from Minneapolis that formed in 2002 and has released several albums. Here is their interpretation of “Time After Time,” which was in the soundtrack for the 2006 film, John Tucker Must Die.

    “Time After Time” is one of those songs that seems like it has been around forever and lends itself well to covers. I suspect most people are like me and prefer Lauper’s original above all others. I was fortunate to see her perform the song in a small club in Cleveland before “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” took her to superstar status. While she will always be most associated with “Girls,” it is “Time After Time” that probably will always be covered by other artists. Some of the versions of the song are by Eva Cassidy, Matchbox Twenty, and Sarah Mclachlan. One of my favorite interpretations is by Miles Davis.

    “Time After Time” is timeless.

    What is your favorite version of “Time After Time”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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